NewsWrap
for the week ending March 25, 2000
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #626, distributed 03-27-00)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge,
Martin Rice, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, Greg Gordon & Lucia
Chappelle]
Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Leo Garcia
A vote in the House of Lords this week demolished a compromise the British
Government had hoped would help repeal Section 28, the never-enforced
Thatcher-era ban on "promotion of homosexuality" by local governments or in
schools. The Government believes that Section 28 is discriminatory and that
it supports anti-gay harassment in schools, but religious and conservative
groups objected to repeal. Britain's Education Minister David Blunkett
worked together with leaders of the Anglican and Catholic churches to draft
guidelines for sex education that were intended to be "safeguards" in the
absence of Section 28. They called for teaching "the nature of marriage and
its importance for family life" and "the significance of marriage and stable
relationships as the key building blocks of community and society." But
Conservatives, led by Baroness Young, objected strenuously to presenting
other "stable" relationships, particularly gay and lesbian ones, on an equal
footing with marriage. She said, "When you teach, you should teach the ideal
to children." Young offered her own amendment to the Learning and Skills Bill
to replace the Government's guidelines with stronger promotion of marriage.
Her proposal was narrowly adopted by 190 - 175, a 15-vote margin, with more
than 100 Lords opting out of the vote. Young's amendment will inevitably be
deleted in the Labour-dominated House of Commons, ensuring months of
continuing struggle to come over both the guidelines and Section 28.
The U.S. Supreme Court also looked at schools this week, ruling that public
universities can use students' mandatory activity fees to support a variety
of student groups. A group of Christian conservatives at the University of
Wisconsin had objected to 18 of 125 campus groups supported by a small
portion of their fees. One of the groups they did not want to contribute to
was the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Campus Center. The plaintiffs argued that
their free speech rights were violated since they were compelled to fund
beliefs they did not share. Similar cases have been brought by Christian
conservatives against universities in several different states, with gay and
lesbian campus groups among those they did not want to fund. Rulings have
differed in those cases, but judges had agreed with the Wisconsin plaintiffs
in both trial and appeal courts. However, the nation's highest court found
unanimously for the state, agreeing that the funds were used to create a
forum for a variety of different views that is a valuable part of students'
educational experience. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the
American Civil Liberties Union, both of which filed friend-of-the-court
briefs in the case, hailed the decision as a victory for universities,
students and free speech.
The Canadian Government sharply modified its position this week on C-23,
its bill to give same-gender couples legal standing equal to unmarried
heterosexuals. After passing on its second reading, the bill was sent to the
Commons Justice Committee. Justice Minister Anne McLellan had stonewalled
demands to add an exclusively heterosexual definition of marriage to C-23,
insisting the bill had nothing to do with marriage. But as the committee
reached the final stage of its work, she suddenly introduced an amendment to
do just that. She said this was intended as a "reassurance" to Canadians for
whom marriage is a unique institution. Despite the objections of openly gay
New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Svend Robinson, Liberal Carolyn
Bennett, and Conservative Peter MacKay, the marriage statement was added to
the bill by a committee vote of 11 to 4. Gay and lesbian activists were
offended and one columnist called it a "poison pill." Robinson accused the Li
beral Government of caving in to the party's "Neanderthal" dissidents.
But in Germany, where former Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic
Union for years blocked recognition of gay and lesbian couples, the CDU moved
to select a leader who supports it. East German Angela Merkel had served
under Kohl as minister for women and youth and minister for the environment,
but she was the first to split from him when the scandals broke regarding the
party's massive misuse of funds. Although her progressive stance on gay
rights is hardly typical of the CDU, its executive committee chose her this
week. Her leadership will have to be confirmed by the party convention in
April.
And in France, the Communist Party's national convention is considering gay
and lesbian rights activist Michela Frigolini for its executive committee.
In Britain, Peter Tatchell, leader of the daring direct action group
OutRage!, is returning to mainstream politics for the first time in 17 years.
This week he announced his candidacy as an independent for the new Greater
London Assembly, and if he can pull 8% of the vote he is likely to be
elected. In 1983 he was a Labour candidate for Parliament, but lost what had
been a "safe" seat by a large margin in the face of an ugly homophobic
campaign.
In Norway, where a new government formed just two weeks ago, both members
of a gay male couple have been given appointments. This week new Labor Party
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg named Vidar Ovesen his Deputy Finance
Minister, a week after appointing his partner Anders Horslien to fill his
seat in the Parliament.
Also in Norway, newly "out" Conservative Party deputy chair Per-Kristian Foss
still seems headed for his party's leadership, topping a new survey published
this week.
At the other end of the popularity scale, Austrian right-winger Jorg Haider
has been "outed" by a left-wing German newspaper. When voters sent Haider
and his Freedom Party into Austria's government two months ago, all of Europe
acted to drive him out, fearing any hint of a Nazi resurgence. Haider then
resigned from his party leadership position as well. Since the report leaned
on Haider's alleged taste for younger teens as well as his relationship with
his male secretary, it's hard to tell whether this is a valid report of his
sexual orientation or a gay-baiting move against an already-reviled figure.
A Freedom Party spokesperson called the article "sleaze-mongering" and
refused to comment, but some believe Haider himself will have to speak soon.
U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Texas Governor George W. Bush has
once again rejected the idea of meeting with the gay and lesbian Log Cabin
Republicans, according to a "Wall Street Journal" report. Several months
ago, Bush told a national television audience he would "probably not" meet
with the group. In early March in California, he appeared to reverse his
position and said that he would. Now it seems to be off again, although a
spokesperson said he "may meet with a group of Republicans who support him and
happen to be gay." Log Cabin spokesperson Kevin Ivers responded, "We're
Republicans, too."
Business appears to be warming up to gays and lesbians, however.
Domestic partner benefits survived Boeing's long dispute with its engineers
and technicians union.
Domestic partner benefits are also part of a new contract signed by
Continental Airlines and its flight attendants.
And the third most valuable corporation in the world, General Electric, this
week announced that it will add "sexual orientation" to its
non-discrimination policies and diversity trainings. Although GE says it has
already been extending equal treatment to gays and lesbians, the move to make
it explicit was sparked by a shareholder proposal from The Equality Project
and The Pride Foundation.
In other business news, some of the best-known brands in gay media agreed
to join up this week. Liberation Publications, which owns both Allyson Books
and the venerable newsmagazine "The Advocate", had contracted in February to
acquire the glossy monthly magazine "OUT". Now Liberation has agreed to join
PlanetOut, the leading Internet portal for gays and lesbians. Although terms
were not quoted, the "Wall Street Journal" estimated the deal at an historic
30 million dollars. PlanetOut CEO Megan Smith compared the deal to the
merger of AOL and Time-Warner. "This Way Out" is heard on PlanetOut Radio.
Back in Canada, a British Columbia Human Rights tribunal found that Kelowna
Mayor Walter Gray violated the provincial Human Rights Code when he edited
the word "pride" out of a gay and lesbian pride proclamation. So it was "Gay
and Lesbian Day" he proclaimed in 1997, and the Okanagan Rainbow Coalition
filed a complaint. The ruling found that Gray had made the unprecedented
move of editing both the proclamation and its preamble "solely because of his
personal views on sexual orientation or identity and his perception of a
political backlash." Gray had testified that he had hoped to make it
"politically acceptable" in view of residents' objections to a pride
proclamation by a previous mayor. Although the ruling against Gray was
strongly worded, no punishment was assigned to him. Three mayors in other
provinces have been found guilty of discrimination for refusing to issue
pride proclamations at all.
And finally... Germany's Parliament seems on the road to lifting the
Nazi-era convictions under the notorious Paragraph 175, which sent tens of
thousands of gay men to concentration camps. Unlike most other Nazi laws,
Paragraph 175 was not fully repealed until 1969. This week caucuses agreed
to a resolution for the Government to review annulling the convictions, and
the measure had its first reading. Openly gay Green Party MP Volker Beck
said it was shameful that it's taken 51 years for there to be a parliamentary
majority to agree to an apology, and to restore the honor of the gay victims
of the Holocaust.